Despite mass shootings and other high-profile incidents nationwide, a new UCLA study has found that day-to-day violence at California’s middle and high schools is sharply lower than it was around the turn of the century.
Researchers analyzed 18 years of data from the California Healthy Kids Survey, a confidential, anonymous questionnaire given to fifth, seventh, ninth and 11th graders each year.
Results between 2001 and 2019 found a 56% reduction in school fights, a 70% reduction in reports of guns on campus, a 68% reduction in other weapons, such as knives, and a 59% reduction in students being threatened by weapons on school grounds.
The study, which included responses from more than 6 million middle and high school students, also found larger declines among Black and Latino students compared to white students.